Holly Andrews, pictured at right, walked across the stage at Belmont University not just as a happy graduate, but also the first of her kind. She is in the first group of students to complete the nursing program in a partnership between Belmont University and Volunteer State Community College. The mother of four made the career choice because of the important role nurses played while she was delivering her children in the hospital.
“I thought: I could do that for the rest of my life. It was just getting up the nerve to do it,” Andrews said.
Andrews is joined by Jordan Banks and Jessica Brazil as the first Vol State group to graduate from the program. They took a set of classes at Vol State that matched up to Belmont nursing requirements. After graduation from Vol State and acceptance into the Belmont program, all of their courses transferred to the bachelor’s of science in nursing degree. Vol State administrators say the program is continuing to grow in popularity.
“Belmont, of course, is a premier institution,” said Dean Nancy Morris. “The students in all of their medical programs get high scores. They have state of the art facilities and a low student to professor ratio.”
